Cashing in with Coupons at BJ's

Saving Money is Hard Work!

I did it again.  I went to the BJ's without my coupon book.  Granted, I'm not much for cutting out a lot of coupons, but the monthly membership book can really save you money, especially if you are going to buy the items in the book anyway.  Just buying a big box of diapers, paper towels, baby wipes and juice boxes with the right coupons can easily net you $15 in savings, just from the members coupon book.  Not too shabby with hardly any effort.

My unsuccessful trip turned into an fascinating lesson in BJ's couponing.

Savings Scenario #1:  Get an Extra Coupon Book at the store

Go to the Membership Desk and ask for a Members book.  The lady in front of me did this.  It was early in the month and she simply asked if the member books had been mailed out yet since she did not receive her copy.  The associate said yes and asked for her membership card.  The customer was given a pristine copy of the BJ's Journal and the Member's coupon book for the month.  Genius!!

Obviously, you can't just grab a ton of these books and you should use the book you received in the mail.  But, if you really did forget your book, why not ask for an extra that is just sitting at Member Services anyway?  So, I did.  (I was actually in line to return the second pack of paper towels that I mistook for toilet paper).  Even though I finished my transaction and wasn't going to use these coupons now, I went ahead and asked for the coupon book.  Cha-ching!

Next time I forget my coupon book, I'll ask for a book before I start shopping!

Savings Scenario #2:  Return Coupons instead of Merchandise

Yes, I looked through the book to see if there were any coupon opportunities I missed.  Sure enough, there was a $5 coupon for the diapers that I had just purchased and loaded in the van.  It was naptime, so I made a plan to come back solo after dinner to return the diapers and buy another box of diapers with the coupon.  You could argue that the time spent returning to the store might not be worth $5, but the thrill of saving money was enticing.

Now, here's where my return trip was indeed profitable.  I mentioned to the Member Services associate that I was only returning the merchandise so I could go back and buy another one using the coupon.  Would I be able to just return and repurchase it here with the coupon and save us both some time?  She did me one better when she said, "You don't even have to bring the merchandise next time.  Just bring in your member card, your receipt and the coupon and we'll redeem it for you."  She promptly completed the transaction and handed me $5.  Sweet!!!

This means that anytime I find a coupon for items that I purchased while the coupon is valid, I can still redeem the coupon AFTER the purchase.  Better yet, I don't have to lug in the merchandise and "return" it.  They'll just scan the receipt.

I found my BJ's Journal when I checked the mail and sure enough, there was a $3 coupon for the toilet tissue I just bought.  No worries.  Next time I'm at or near BJ's in the next two weeks, a quick trip to Member Services with my coupon and my receipt will net me an easy $3.

And, yes, you can stack manufacturer coupons for even more savings.  Happy $hopping!

Frugal Families: Slash Your Grocery Bill with Coupon Mom

My mother is the queen of coupon clipping.  She would even get extra copies of the coupon inserts, scour the circulars for savings and combine coupons, store sales and double and triple coupons to get huge deals on her groceries and toiletries.  This all took a Herculean effort.  While she did save a tidy sum each week and got a boatload of stuff for free, this approach is not for the faint of heart.  Nowadays, another coupon clipping guru has developed an amazing online tool that gets you the savings you want with a lot less work.  Allow me to introduce you to the Coupon Mom.

Coupon Mom is a great way to maximize your savings while reducing the effort spent clipping those coupons.  I call this targeted coupon shopping.  You can visit her website to get the specifics, but here is a quick summary of how it works:

1. Save your coupon inserts and write the date of it on the front in marker.  There are three companies that provide these inserts each week:  Redplum, Procter & Gamble (P&G), and Smartsource.  Just keep doing this each week and find a nice place for your coupon insert stack.
2. Peruse the couponmom website to get the week’s deals by store and state.
3. Select the deals you want and you can email the list to yourself.
4. The deals will list the specific coupon to use by date and coupon insert.  You simply gather the appropriate insert, and find and clip the coupons you want.

In fine frugal fashion, CouponMom.com is free and is paid for by advertising.  They maintain a database of coupons by date and match the store sales with current, unexpired coupons.  With Coupon Mom, you only clip the coupons you want and you reap bigger savings by using the coupons when the products are on sale.

Still skeptical?  Being an Industrial Engineer by trade, I conducted a personal test to assess the viability of this project.  My time study revealed the following:  It took less than 5 minutes to browse through the site and generate a list of the deals I liked for 3 stores (Giant, Walgreen’s and CVS).  In fact, I did it on my smartphone while watching TV.  Once I printed out my emailed list, it took me 10 minutes to go through the coupon inserts and find the coupons I wanted for one store.

With the kiddies in bed, I proceeded to my test store, Giant, that night with my banana, water bottle, CouponMom list and coupons in hand.   I scanned the aisles and was able to get most of the items I wanted and check out in 30 minutes.  Things were definitely much faster without the kids.  I was able to find the sale products and match them with my coupons without too much trouble.

Here are my stats for this quick trip:  I bought 19 items, which retailed for $70.98.  I ended up paying $38.69, just a little more than half the price.  Most of these items are loss leaders, or the items that are on sale that week, such as the buy one get one free pork chops and the 10 for $10 specials.  However, I was also able to use 3 coupons in order to get shampoo for $0.89, a free box of bandages, and four large boxes of brand name cereal for $1.75 each.

The end result: for an extra 15 minutes worth of work, I saved $5 in coupons.  That’s like earning $20 an hour!  I also saved time preselecting the items I wanted for sale without having to bother scouring over the circular and comparing prices.  CouponMom makes coupon clipping worth the effort.

This article appeared originally as a blog post for the Frugal Families blog on Chesapeake Family in October 2010.